When people think of this
Almost always late, and almost always because of something else.
You want to remarry and are told you are still married. You are selling a property and the notary asks for the consent of a spouse who has not been your spouse for years. You are settling an estate and a former spouse appears as an heir. You request a document and your marital status is wrong.
The foreign judgment is valid where it came from. The question is whether it is reflected here.
Whether a procedure is needed
It depends on the country the judgment comes from and on what exactly you want to do with it.
For judgments from one group of countries the route is shorter and can run through an administrative path. For judgments from another group it goes through the court.
So I do not give a general answer before seeing the judgment. The first thing I do is establish which route applies to your case, because setting off down the wrong one costs months.
What gets checked
Whether the judgment is final and whether that is certified. Whether the other party was properly notified in the proceedings. Whether it conflicts with another decision already in effect here. And whether the document is prepared so that a Bulgarian institution will accept it, meaning apostilled or legalised and translated in the required manner.
The last part is technical, but it derails more files than anything else. See apostille and legalisation.
Do it before you need it
This is the one piece of advice here that applies to everyone.
The procedure takes time. If you start it on the day the notary has stopped your sale or you have set a wedding date, time is already working against you.
If you have a foreign divorce and are planning anything at all in Bulgaria over the coming year, sort it out now, while it is not urgent.
If you are abroad
You do not need to come. The file is handled through a power of attorney. You will need to gather documents where the judgment came from, and what exactly is gathered depends on the country.
What I will need
The divorce judgment, endorsed as final. The marriage certificate. Details of the country and the court. If you have a written refusal from a Bulgarian institution, bring that too, because it states exactly what is required.
This page provides general information and does not constitute legal advice on any specific case. Rights and deadlines depend on the facts and the applicable law.